Junior defenseman Matt Gilroy has been invited to participate in the United States Men’s National Team training camp, USA Hockey announced last week.
The two-time All-American joined Boston College standout Nathan Gerbe as the only amateur players at the Portland, Me., camp, which began last Thursday and concludes tomorrow. The team is preparing for next month’s 2008 IIHF World Championship, held May 2-18 in Quebec City, Quebec, and Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Team USA is led by a trio of Hockey East alumni, including Tampa Bay Lightning head coach John Tortorella (University of Maine), Lowell Devils head coach Kurt Kleinendorst (Providence College) and former Terrier captain and current Lightning assistant coach Mike Sullivan.
Filling the bills
With the graduation of nine seniors next month, 2008-09 is set to feature a new cast of characters that will have a major hand in the Terriers’ fortunes next season. BU coach Jack Parker’s incoming class, which includes two goaltenders, appears to fill every void left by the Class of 2008 — at least on paper.
Among BU’s apparent strengths next year is a revamped defense. The Terriers return Gilroy, sophomores Eric Gryba and Brian Strait and freshmen Colby Cohen and Kevin Shattenkirk to a unit that showed marked improvement down the stretch this season.
“Coming in, we think we’ve got exactly what we want,” Parker said in a recent interview. “The biggest recruit is probably Matt Gilroy. We were gonna have a lot of defensemen back next year, but we thought we were gonna lose both Gilroy and [senior Dan McGoff], and you wind up losing just Danny.
“That’s a pretty good core coming back, and then you add a real talented kid in [incoming freshman David] Warsofsky, who definitely will have a chance to play the point on the power play and create offense for us as well as being a real smart defensive defenseman. We’re gonna be as good as we’ve ever been at that position, and having a senior come back who’s an All-American steadies everybody because you have a real good player who can anchor that core.”
The loss of seniors Bryan Ewing and Pete MacArthur off the top line, along with fourth liners Ryan Weston and Brian McGuirk, is a major blow to a Terrier team that scored 135 goals this season behind a 3.38 per-game average.
Parker, though, is confident in his incoming wingers.
“When you’re losing two forwards off the first line and two forwards off the fourth line, you’ve got to come up with some people you think can fill those bills,” he said. “There’s some offensive talent in [the incoming] class, just as much as the offensive talent we brought in with this year’s class. We’re gonna add guys like [incoming freshmen Corey] Trivino and Vinny [Saponari], and [Chris] Connolly’s a very good player. Those guys will help absorb the loss of those goals, but I do believe we’ll go as far as our upperclassmen bring us.”
The end of the line?
Parker said he’s certain of one thing regarding his coaching career: the end of his tenure is closer now than it was in 1994. The man who twice turned down the opportunity to coach the Boston Bruins enters his 36th season behind the BU bench next fall, 19 wins shy of 800 for his career.
So what exactly drives the Somerville native to lace up the skates at a point when one might think he’s done it all?
“It has to do with health more than anything else,” said Parker, whose contract with the university runs “for quite awhile.” “Am I excited about going to practice every day? Do I feel like I’m doing a good job compared to the way I did it 10 years ago?
“There’s also the excitement of liking what I got coming in: ‘Hey, I want to coach Trivino. I want to see what [freshman Nick] Bonino’s gonna do for us.’ That type of stuff keeps you looking forward to the future in a positive way and not say, ‘Yeah I think I’ll quit in two years and see what’s happening.'”
Still, a tenuous season such as 2007-08 brought about momentary lapses in focus for BU’s Executive Director of Athletics.
“Sometimes I think I wouldn’t mind doing something else,” Parker said. “There are many times when I said, ‘Hey wouldn’t it be nice just to go to the Beanpot with my wife and sit down and watch it.’ But this type of year makes you want to come back next year and do better. The end of the line would be related to health reasons or ‘Hey, we just won the national championship back-to-back. That’s enough.’ Sooner or later, it will happen.”